Searching Family Roots

Romania Returning

This film was made by Lara Rabinovitch, PhD candidate at New York University in modern Jewish history, of her travels with Eduard Popescu in Romania, Summer 2008. It highlights her visits to synagogues and cemeteries in Bucharest, Piatra Neamt, Botosani, Bacau, Falticeni, Suceava, Podu Iloaiei, Iasi, and other smaller villages.

“I went to Romania with my wife during April 2009, a pre-Danube cruise. I had been there with a friend who was looking for his grand-mother’s grave in 2005. We went in the dead of winter and found the grave site. It was very moving. Eduard, our guide then and now, got the cemetery plowed out from snow, so that we could drive in and had a path shoveled to the actual grave. The man is truly a remarkable fellow.”Joel Ezra, USA

“Exactly one hundred years ago, a Jewish lemonade manufacturer from Botosani, Romania emigrated with his wife and 5 children to UK. That man was my great-grandfather Israel (Strul) Haier. With little more than that to go on, we (his grandson, great-grandson and 3 great-great-grandsons) set out on a voyage of discovery led by the intrepid Eduard. Even before we set foot in Romania, he had started searching for clues and had found the likely town where the lemonade was made (Hirlau). Eduard led us to Botosani where, with his close contacts in the Jewish community, we visited the cemetery, searched archives, prayed in the shul and even had the opportunity to interview a sprightly 90-year old Jewish man from the area who described life in the town in his childhood. Eduard took us to meet the Presidents of the Jewish communities in Botosani and Iashiand the Chief Rabbi in Bucharest. He left no stone unturned. When our itinerary needed to change, he remained flexible and helpful. He entertained us with his good humour and educated us with his extensive knowledge of Romanian history. For those wishing to learn more about their family roots and Jewish heritage, I thoroughly recommend Eduard and Romania Jewish tours.”Steve, Krishna, Bernard, Jonathan, Justin, Jason Hyer
London, UK
August 2009

The time of remembrance

“There comes a time when people need to return to the places where they saw the light of day for the first time and where they spent one of among the most beautiful years of their lives, or when they decide to visit the regions where their close relatives, their great loves, passed some time; or when, pure and simple, they feel the need to make a journey to an almost deserted place from which may yet emanate that spirituality that contributed to their flowering. For Jews of Romanian origin, for their descendants and for everything that can be felt through one or another type of connection to Romania, there exists a chance to find once more, personal memories or memories of being loved…”

Searching roots services

Exploring your Jewish roots can be difficult for various reasons: Records may have been lost in the Holocaust, no single country serves as a place of origin since Jews lived all over the world, there is a lack of Jewish surnames in Eastern Europe – and many others. It can be especially difficult when you live abroad.

We are based in Bucharest, Romania and we have many connections to the Romanian Jewish Community across the country. So we can do the work for you. We can provide, upon request, tailored research to help you discover information about your ancestors or about your relatives. We can try and find your place of origin in Romania. We can undertake cemetery research in and we can try to help you in finding this data by asking help directly from the Romanian Jewish Community.

Please contact us for further information on our wide range of services in researching and finding Jewish family connections for those living abroad.